Merger too late for this fan

Hey, did you hear the IRL and Champ Car series finally came to their senses and agreed to merge into one open-wheel series!?!

Woo frickin' hoo.

It's 12 years and one U.S. 500 too late.

This coming from a guy who attended double-digit Indianapolis 500s beginning in the early 1970s and ending in the mid-90s -- all as a fan.

The sport had me at Unser, Foyt and Andretti. It lost me at Calkins, Gosek and Velez.

That latter trio actually qualified and raced at the hallowed oval in 1996 under the IRL banner while rival CART teams were competing just north of there in the U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway that same Memorial Day weekend.

It was that weekend that marked the beginning of the end for a generation of open wheel fans, including me. Many no doubt jumped on the NASCAR bandwagon, helping propel it to the mega-level it's reached today.

So now comes word that the two open-wheel series are merging? Well, that's just great. Who's left to root for? Name the top five drivers in the new combined series.

I couldn't either, now that the open-wheel ranks are missing former Indy 500 champs such as Sam Hornish Jr., Dario Franchitti, Juan Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve, all of whom have jumped to NASCAR.

That leaves the likes of Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan, Paul Tracy and Danica Patrick for open-wheel fans to root for.

Woo frickin' hoo.